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Welcome to The Right Room!
Why Smart Business Owners Don’t Do Everything Themselves | Sheryl Scott
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“If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room – Welcome to The Right Room”
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Why Smart Business Owners Don’t Do Everything Themselves
Stop Doing Everything
The Right Room is a business and leadership podcast where founders and entrepreneurs share real stories, profit strategies, and practical lessons for building successful companies.
In this episode of The Right Room, Jane Parmel and Celeste DeCamps speak with Sheryl Scott, LegalShield associate and advocate for small business owners and families. Sheryl shares the pivotal lessons that shaped her career path, the strategic shift that led her into affordable legal services, and the key insights entrepreneurs can apply to avoid burnout, delegate better, and protect their business before problems arise.
After careers in advertising and career coaching, Sheryl saw a pattern: many people went into business assuming they could figure everything out themselves. But the reality is very different. Business owners may be experts at their craft, but that does not mean they should also be their own lawyer, accountant, web designer, and tax strategist.
This episode is a practical conversation about doing what you do best, relying on professionals for the rest, and why legal support is not just for emergencies. It is part of building a smarter, stronger, more sustainable business.
What You’ll Learn:
✅ Why trying to do everything yourself leads to burnout
✅ How to spot when research and learning are stealing revenue-generating time
✅ Why small business owners need professional support
✅ What kinds of legal issues can quietly create major risk
✅ Why reviewing contracts before signing matters
✅ How affordable legal services can help both businesses and families
✅ Why slowing down to evaluate your business can help you move faster
✅ The importance of building the right support team around your business
Room Service:
This week, slow down to speed up.
Take 20 to 30 minutes and ask yourself:
- What am I doing that someone else could do better or faster?
- Where am I spending time instead of generating revenue?
- What issue in my business or personal life should I stop guessing about and ask a professional?
Choose one task, one risk, or one recurring point of stress and get expert help with it.
About Our Guest:
Sheryl Scott helps families and small business owners access affordable legal support through LegalShield. With a background in advertising, career coaching, and entrepreneurship, she brings both practical insight and empathy to the challenges business owners face when they are trying to build sustainably without doing everything alone.
Connect with Sheryl:
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherylscott15
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/sherylscott15
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/sheryl.your.legalshield.lady/
ALIGNABLE: https://www.alignable.com/plattsvilleon/legalshield?user=2041954
About The Right Room Podcast:
The Right Room is a business and leadership podcast focused on growth, communication, entrepreneurship, and the strategies that help leaders navigate challenges and build stronger businesses.
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I've got a friend who recently renewed his mortgage. Same company he's been with for years, right? Standard contract, signed it, and then thought, wait a minute, I've got that legal shield thing. I might as well have my lawyer look at it. What the heck? Sent it off. The lawyer called him back and said, Yep, this is all pretty standard. But do you know there's a clause in here that says if anybody other than you pays a mortgage payment, you're in default.
SPEAKER_00I'm tired. Okay. Is that is that anything new? No, it's it now. Actually, you know what? I'm less tired than I was before because when I had my brick and mortar, I was exhausted all the time. I worked and didn't know what I didn't know, didn't know who to ask, didn't know a lot of things. And I burned out. 20 years in it, and I really burned out. Couldn't even walk in the place anymore. Um, but I think you know, trying to do everything is just not possible. You have to do a lot and you have to work in and on, but you have to do it in moderation, I guess, like everything.
SPEAKER_01Uh today's strategic. Exactly. I I think that a lot of what people don't understand is how delegation works into that strategy and how to trust that the people that you're hiring will do it the way you want to do it. But I think that what we need is an expert to come into the right room.
SPEAKER_00Yes, plus, plus, plus. So we are going to ask Cheryl Scott to step into the right room. Hi, Cheryl.
SPEAKER_02Hello, ladies. Celeste, Jean, nice to see you. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_00See, well, she's ahead of the game already. Welcome to the right room. Business owners here, walk in with questions and leave with clarity. I'm Jane Parmell, as Cheryl just said.
SPEAKER_01And I'm Celeste Campson here in the right room. We work on the story, the strategy, and the steps that you can take to find your solutions. Welcome, Cheryl, again. And I know that you can relate to what Jane was talking about. We want to hear your story.
SPEAKER_02I can absolutely relate. I'm actually on career number three. And I say career, I mean I couldn't even begin to tell you how many jobs have been within there, but this is career number three. So I started in advertising a bazillion years ago, clearly right out of kindergarten, but it was pre-internet. And so things changed a lot. And I went from helping employers hire to helping unemployed people figure out what to do with their lives and get new jobs as a career coach. And I loved what I did because I love to help people. But along the way, I met a lot of folks that would say things like, Oh, if I don't get a job right away, I'll hang out a sign and be self-employed. And as their coach, I'd have to say, slow down. In theory, it's that simple. But in reality, it's not that easy if you actually need to make money. So let's see what you need to do and if you're doing it for all the right reasons. If you're doing it because you think it's easier than job search, no, most of the time, not true. If you're doing it because you never want to ask a boss for time off and want to take endless vacation, well, that's not gonna work either. Let's just say. But, you know, if you've got some other reasons, then yeah, it could be a great move, but it's never gonna be as easy as you think. And my mantra became do what you do best and rely on pros for the rest. You just can't be good at everything. Well, maybe you can be good, but you can't be great at everything. And the other reality is, nor should you, right? We're all good at our craft. But when we started out in business, what did we know about starting and running a business? So we need folks, we need business coaches, we need insurance professionals, we need a good lawyer or legal service, we need a good accountant. Speaking from experience, don't do your own taxes because you will miss write-offs you don't even know exist. And that, I mean, I'm up in Canada, but our two governments actually have more in common than we do differently. And that's that they don't make decisions based on logic. And yes, they come up with wonderful things to help small business owners, but then they don't promote them because they actually don't want us to use them. So, yes, you need an accountant. You just you need all of these professionals to really help you to truly be successful, and so that's just that is partly what led me to career number three now with Legal Shield, where I can protect and empower yes, families, but also small businesses and their owners with affordable legal services. Now, I know affordable and legal don't belong in the same sentence typically, but legal shield, thankfully, is changing all of that. Now, if you've got lawyers in the family, amazing. If they specialize in the type of area you um need, or if you're one of those lucky, I'll say lucky, but fortunate people who can't afford to keep a lawyer in your back pocket, then that's amazing. If you don't fall in one of those two categories, well then, you know, have a conversation with Jane or I, because there is another way.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, definitely. And and you know, like you said, you don't go to uh, you know, a specialist for something in general, but you also don't go to a generalist, like you don't go to, you know, um, if you have to have heart surgery, you're not exactly going to your general practitioner. Um, same as you would not go to a shoemaker to have a plumbing matter fixed. People do the things that they have to do, you know. I mean, and and the the roles that they want to serve others in, right? So that's what I'm hearing from you is yeah, it's great to do what you want to do and your passion. You can't possibly be if if dare I say jack of all trades, or in my case, Jane of all trades, um at once. You just can't do it because it's not it's not sustainable, it's not uh good for the business. And listen, when you don't know it, you don't know it any law is one thing. Medicine, you know, or the biggies you can't fake. Sometimes people try to fake it until they make it. What's one of the things that that you would say to someone if they noticed that they were really spiraling into that burnout kind of thing because they're trying to do everything? What would be one one I don't know, red flag that you would say to look for?
SPEAKER_02Well, if they are spending way too much time on research or learning, don't get me wrong, I mean, learning lifelong learning is good for the brain, absolutely. But we've got what multiple authors have talked about as golden hours, our revenue generating hours. We can only work during certain time frames, and we need sleep, unfortunately. When we were 20-something, maybe not so much, but that's not always the case. And so you've really got to protect those golden hours, and all of the other things need to fall outside of there. So, yes, we can all download free software and watch a hundred hours of YouTube and learn how to create a website. Sure. But it's gonna be probably mediocre at best. It's gonna look like a hundred other templates. And the reality is all of those hours that you spent watching YouTube and learning the software and building the website, although good for your brain, was time that you couldn't be generating revenue in your business, whether it was doing marketing or whether it was developing your product or going out and generating leads and new customers and looking after your current customers, which is so, so important. So, you know, I think the warning signs are okay, at the end of the day, look back and say, hey, was I doing the right activities in the right time? Am I producing the results that I would like, or at least headed, is this getting closer to my goal or further away? You know, and you've just got to be brutally honest. I mean, when we plan a trip, you've got to know where you're starting from and where you're going in order to create your journey, your route. And it's the same way in business. You've got to be brutally honest with where you are now, where you want to get to, and what are the steps to reach that goal.
SPEAKER_01And I think a lot of people who put together a business plan and they feel like, okay, they know what the end goal is, they have talked to people, they have gotten advice, and then it is a matter of trying to then figure out those steps. And that in itself is overwhelming. But I also know that as we're trying to get people together of who's going to help us with our website and who's going to help us with our marketing. I do believe one of the things that falls through the cracks, and I am sure that when you were talking about legal shield, that people were saying, What do I need a lawyer for? I'll never need a lawyer. Why would I need a lawyer?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, as long as nothing goes wrong, right?
SPEAKER_01And and I think that's also you know part of being proactive in the you know, the people that you surround yourself with in helping grow your business. I do want you to take that moment then. Why would people need to put that down on their list? A lawyer or, like you said, something affordable like legal shield.
SPEAKER_02Well, I think the biggest reason is that we don't know what we don't know. We can Google, we can ask AI, but if you don't even know that you should be asking the question, how can you? And there's just so many things that we don't think about. Yeah, there's the what-ifs. I mean, I was guilty of it as well. I don't need a lawyer. We don't use lawyers, we're good people. Well, we didn't use lawyers because we couldn't afford lawyers. If you think about the wealthy few, they don't do anything without talking to their attorney, they don't sign anything without having a lawyer look it over. Well, why shouldn't the rest of us do that?
SPEAKER_01I mean, because I'm sure it's the main reason, right? But it's but it's also a cost thing. I mean, I it can be absolutely starting off in a new business, your capital is already pretty much spent. So, how so what do you suggest to somebody uh about having that lawyer in your pocket that is affordable?
SPEAKER_02Well, Legal Shield has done something truly in terms of the legal system, unique. However, it's not unique because it's a cost-sharing model. So, very, very similar to CAA in Canada or AAA in the United States, right? For roadside assistance, there could be an entire parking lot and they've all got it. They're not all going to use it every day. So the difference is instead of mechanics and tow truck drivers, we've got law firms and attorneys. We're not changing how they do the legal services, we're simply changing how we bring it to market, how our lawyers get paid, and that makes it affordable, which is phenomenal. But even if you have a trusted lawyer in your back pocket, use them. It is way less stressful. And in the long run, usually cheaper to be proactive versus reactive. Lawyers are there as much to keep us out of trouble as they are to get us out of trouble, if not more so. You may never need them for the big scary things. If you're having your contracts reviewed before you sign them and know exactly what you're agreeing to, and having them help you create your contracts for whether it's for suppliers, whether it's for real estate, whether it's for clients, you've got to put things in writing. Partnerships. Oh man, I've known way too many people that have destroyed friendships and families because they simply decided to go into business together, were totally trusting. Not that the people weren't trustworthy, but people can have different expectations. And if you don't put it in writing, you don't get it out in the open, suddenly stuff falls apart, and next thing you know, you've not only lost your business, you've lost whatever relationship you started with, and it's so not worth it. You know, little things yeah, it might cost you time and money, big things can cost you your business and maybe more.
SPEAKER_00It's just you know, I I think one of the things, like I know you I I mentioned and then you reiterated about contracts. Something as simple as, you know, I remember being in business and we did party planning and events that required balloon decorating and flower floral decorating. And our contract was pretty short because we narrowed it down to the things that were the most important, the things that we had seen over years of being called out on, if you will. Um but one of the biggest things was um when you talk to other people, they're like, well, we're so small. You know, I mean, again, I know that Legal Shield is very affordable, but again, what the consequences of not having someone go over a contract, set up a partnership agreement, um, like you said, they could lose everything. What is the offset? I mean, even if I say to you, take it out of the business, even just have Legal Shield review a contract that a plain old person's going into with a vendor, uh a plumber, uh an electrician, does it make sense to even do that on a personal level as opposed to just the business level?
SPEAKER_02Absolutely, for exactly the same reason. We don't know what we don't know. You know, it's often been said that the big print giveth and the fine print taketh away. And it is so, so true. And I've heard some pretty wacky contract things. For instance, I've got a friend who recently renewed his mortgage, same company he's been with for years, right? Standard contract, signed it, and then thought, wait a minute, I've got that legal shield thing. I might as well have my lawyer look at it. What the heck? Sent it off. The lawyer called him back and said, Yep, this is all pretty standard. But do you know there's a clause in here that says if anybody other than you pays a mortgage payment, you're in default. What kind of wacky clause is that? So let's suppose, let's suppose his father, instead of giving them a birthday present, wanted to pay a mortgage payment. Well, he could give his son the payment and the son could pay for the mortgage. But if the father did it directly, suddenly the mortgage is in default, and that company could take his house.
SPEAKER_00That's amazing.
SPEAKER_02That that's like how who would ever guess at something like that, right? I mean, on the business side, here in Ontario, Canada, I actually have a really good example. Many people get into business and think, well, I must need to incorporate right away. I must need to start charging and remitting taxes right away. It's like, no, not necessarily. You need to consult with yes, your lawyer, but also your accountant, because there's pros and cons to everything. And what's right for one might not be right for another. They might advise you to do it right away. And in the United States, you you folks have options in terms of incorporation. Up here, we're incorporated or we're not, and it's expensive. So that alone causes people to think twice. But how do you know when? How do you know how? How do you know which type of incorporation if you are in the United States? Like it's mind-boggling. Well, as far as taxes, here in Ontario, we have something called harmonized sales tax. So it includes um provincial sales tax and federally mandated goods and services taxes, and they've stuck it all together and called it harmonized sales tax. Well, one would think that a business needs to register and then collect and remit it to the government. Well, interestingly enough, here in Ontario, you don't have to do that until you hit $30,000 in revenue. Oh, wow. And I've had folks going into business saying, Well, I don't know if I'm gonna hit $30,000 in my first year. It's not your first year. If you hit that amount on August 7th, August 8th, you need to register, start collecting, and start remitting. What kind of crazy system is that? Nobody's gonna guess at that. And you know, how would you even Google such a thing?
SPEAKER_00You can you can confuse Google.
SPEAKER_02Oh, absolutely. Plus, figure out, because let's face it, you get 6,000 hits, what's current and what's correct for your industry, jurisdiction, whatever.
SPEAKER_00But if you now, but if you as a business owner in Canada or in New York, in New York, wherever you are, and and like you said, you don't know the question to ask, so you would go to a lawyer. The cost difference between something going to a lawyer on your own by yourself is I don't know what, three, four hundred, five hundred dollars an hour if they want, as opposed to Legal Shield, which is extremely affordable. Um you know, to me, I will tell you, I've used the services of Legal Shield uh with one of the biggest contracts I had signed in in two maybe two, three years ago. And I thank God every day that I did it because, yeah, you know, I'm I'm smart until I'm not that smart, and then I take a little piece from here and a little piece from there. And I did, I put it all together, and then I said, let me have them check it. And they came back with take this out, do this, do that. And it was great because I didn't lose $400 doing it. In fact, it actually got me paid when the client canceled the contract. So it was it was it was the best money ever spent because you think about again, yeah, I know what I know. I've been in business a long time, I've written a bunch of contracts, but I needed something more, I needed something different. So, yeah, that's really seeing it and recognizing it, just like you said, you don't know what you don't know, you need to get that help. And um, anyway you can do it, and it can be budget-friendly, is always good.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. I mean, I helped a young man uh up here in Ontario. He wanted, I've helped a number of small business owners, but in particular, this one young gentleman, he had legal shield. Him and his wife had had a baby, they needed their wills written. It is by far the most cost-effective way to get your wills and powers of attorney created by a lawyer, hands down. And I've looked. There is not anything more cost effective. Um, but so he said, Cheryl, I'm thinking of starting a business. How can it help? I said, Well, we've got services for business owners. He was able to call the law firm and say, Hey, I'm thinking of starting a landscaping company, but in reality, it's me and my lawnmower out of my garage. What do I need to know? What do I need to do, and how much can you help me with? Fast forward a bunch of years, he's now got approximately 10 staff, 3,000 square foot commercial space full of equipment. And he said, Cheryl, I never would have called an attorney for everything I've used Legal Shield for, because it would have been too expensive. Probably when I had to fire somebody, because I certainly didn't want that to blow back on me, but for everything else, I would have made Google decisions, crossed my fingers, and hoped that everything was okay. They've helped me with both signing contracts as well as creating contracts, the privacy policies in terms of use on my website, uh, hiring, firing. It's a, you know, even just recently, we had a provincial holiday here in Ontario called Family Day. Well, it's not a statute. Holiday, he called and said, Do I have to pay my part-timers? Some of them are seasonal, some of them are year-round, some of them are full-time, some of them are part-time, very part-time, some are contractors, some are actually employees. Like he got, depending on the particular situation, he ended up with four different answers. He never would have figured that out on his own. Who did he need to pay for that holiday? Yeah, that's a bit of a unique situation, but how many other businesses have unique situations? Their industry, their size, their particular niche, their background, we're all unique. Why stress with figuring it out yourself when you could easily pick up the phone or tap an app and just say, hey, I don't even know what my question is, but here's the situation.
SPEAKER_00That's the truth. That's the truth.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and it's helped. Yeah. And this actually brings us to our part of the show, which is called room service. And in this part, in this section, uh, because you've already given us a lot of great information, but we want to help just even distill it down a little bit further. Can you think of one actionable step that somebody could take within the next day or two or within the week to help them with their business in terms of being proactive, of either getting the help that they need to avoid burnout or uh information that they should themselves look at if they do not have legal shield. What do you suggest?
SPEAKER_02I would say one important actionable step for every business owner, not just today, but every so often, slow down to speed up, just stop, take a breath. Yes, we plan, do and do and do and do and do, and sometimes we don't stop to review. And what we might be doing is working well, but is it working efficiently? Could it be better? We want to we don't just want to be good, we want to be great. So I would say slow down to speed up, stop, take that breath, look at where you are, where you want to get to, what what's slipping through the cracks, and what professionals are gonna help you get to where you want to be faster, more effectively. And yeah, on the surface, it looks like it's gonna cost you money. But I mean, I'll give the example. If somebody works a nine-to-five job, they've got a leaky tap. Sure, they can spend two weekends and how many trips to the hardware store and watching YouTube videos and fix it themselves. Great. But if it's something more urgent and they're going to take two or three days off work to do it, that's money out of your pocket. No, probably cheaper to go hire a pro at $80, $100, $120 an hour and get it done in 15 minutes. Let's just be real. Well, it's no different with accounting or legal or bookkeeping or even your administrative stuff. I mean, if you're losing sleep, might be time for a virtual assistant. Now you're going to be selective, and that's where communities come in very handy. Ask other small business owners. Who have you used? How has it helped? What's been, you know, the one service you invested in that was by far your favorite or the one that you wished you'd done sooner. Go ask other folks. Don't touch the hot stove if your sibling already touched it and told you it's hot. I mean, the trial and error is great, but not always. And it takes time and money, right? I mean, if you again, if you don't have a lawyer in the family, if you can't afford to put a law a law firm on retainer, then yeah, reach out to Gene or I and ask about Legal Shield because it could be a good solution. It's not for everybody, but again, you don't know what you don't know. So get the information and make an educated decision. I wish that I could give you services like this for everything. And there may be bookkeepers and accountants who do operate on some sort of subscription model. I'm not aware of them, but who knows? Ask around. Because it is a real I mean, subscriptions are just the way of the world right now, and it does make things way more affordable. Aren't we all paying way less for our streaming services than we did for cable?
SPEAKER_00That's true. That is true.
SPEAKER_02Or even satellite. I mean, I know the 20-somethings out there are going, what the heck is cable?
SPEAKER_00But that's it. It's true. It it's, you know, I'm not going to disagree with you. It's a question of you recognize it, you you move on it, you take that step, like you said, take that step back. And and people don't, they don't stop long enough to uh look at their business from a different lens. And that's I think that you you brought that out so so perfectly. Absolutely. Um, you know, it's a good thing. It's a good thing to do.
SPEAKER_02For sure. And in all areas of your business. I mean, yeah, you can eat a Big Mac every single day and you know it's gonna catch up with you. Yeah, you're not gonna see it until you look back at a photo from a year or two ago because it's little bits over time. Well, little bits can be good or not so good. So good, right? So you've got to slow down to speed up, right? Otherwise, we're gonna land ourselves in trouble.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So we just have one last question. What does it mean to you to be in the right room? What does that make you think of?
SPEAKER_02It means I'm surrounding myself with folks that are either going to help me or uplift me and support me. Absolutely. And that, I mean, can mean all sorts of different things in the business realm. Yes, have I got my A-team of professionals to help me get started and stay on the right track? In a personal life, have I got the people that are gonna support me? Because being a business owner is tough, and you don't want to be 100% isolated and suddenly, okay, maybe you're making a lot of money, but you've lost your marriage, you've lost your friends. No, no, definitely not. Because what's money if you don't have a life? And unfortunately, we need money to have a life, but there's a balance.
SPEAKER_00Definitely.
SPEAKER_02And sometimes being in the right room can make all the difference.
SPEAKER_00Great. So, Cheryl, um, as we are wrapping up, where can people find you? Where can what's the best next step that they can take to get in touch with you if they need anything from you? Advice, legal protection, identity protection, any of that?
SPEAKER_02Probably the the easiest spot to find me is on LinkedIn. Um, because I'm there often and there's nothing confusing. Um, Facebook, I added maiden names and all sorts of stuff to try to connect with old schoolmates, which quite frankly didn't work. Very bizarre. But anyway, LinkedIn is probably the easiest place to find me. Jane, I know you've got my contact information, and I'll make sure, Celeste, that you've got it as well. So if there's some sort of notes or something along with this broadcast, you can put them in there as well. But LinkedIn should be pretty easy to find me.
SPEAKER_00Sounds good. That's exactly what we'll do. We'll put them in the show notes, and this way everybody will have everything for uh to get in contact with you. Definitely. Awesome.
SPEAKER_01Well, we thank you so much for this. We really appreciate Cheryl coming into the right room.
SPEAKER_02All right, Cheryl, I appreciate you having me. Thank you.
